Any gun that actually does expel a projectile like a BB gun is not considered a toy, and therefore isn't required to have the bright orange tip. The larger problem is people seeing BB guns and seeing real guns - which they are though they don't expel bullets. A BB gun is not classified as a toy, therefore there is already a problem when people believe that it IS a toy because by law it is not.
I think that making BB guns or other projectile firing guns to look like a gun that shoots real bullets is madness without some kind of obvious marking that it isn't a bullet firing gun. I also understand the fear of the public when seeing someone walking about with what looks to all the world as a gun more lethal than it actually is seeing all the mass shootings the country has lived through. It also certainly doesn't help having these new open carry laws that as far as I can tell are designed to put people in fear and subject someone to being shot by police or someone else if they don't instantly comply to orders to put up their hands and/or put the gun on the ground or otherwise handle the gun inappropriately.
If the police can't tell that a gun is either a toy or a BB gun or some other non-bullet firing gun than there is a big problem they might and has already caused the death of people carrying them that do stupid things like walking around in public with them in hand, pointing them at people and not immediately putting it down out of their hands when ordered by the police. I think it's rather obvious that the police HAVE to assume that a gun that appears to be a bullet firing gun IS one since the risk of believing that it isn't is too great to themselves and others that it may be what it appears to all the world to be.
Though we have laws that toy guns - those that do not fire any kind of projectile - have to be designated visually as a toy with the bright orange tip on the barrel, we don't have any laws about non-bullet firing guns that are being made to look just like real bullet firing guns.
I don't see that it makes any difference the age of a person who has such a gun in their hands. Children have killed people with guns before many times either handling them inappropriately or actually shooting them at someone on purpose. A gun in the hands of a child or a mentally disturbed person is even more of a danger since such people can't be trusted to not handle them inappropriately or be able to ascertain what not to do with them that puts people in legitimate fear or to follow orders to immediately put it down. I already think that it's wildly foolish to furnish projectile firing guns to children without adult supervision. Why anyone allows their child to walk about in public holding a projectile firing gun in their hand is a mystery to me. That falls under the category of really stupid person that doesn't know how or why to handle a gun appropriately regardless if it's a bullet firing gun or not that looks like a real bullet firing gun and has no distinctive marking signifying that it isn't.
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